>> Rachel: Good morning! It’s time for Chompers, your twice daily toothbrushing show!

Start brushing on the top of your mouth, and brush in little circles around each tooth

>> Kids: 3, 2, 1, brush! 

>> Rachel: It’s Folktales Week! Folktales can be true. Or pretend. People love telling them because they teach us lessons about the world. Today, our story comes from the middle east. This story is about a king called Shah Abbas.  

Switch your brushing to the other side of the top of your mouth but don’t brush too hard

The shah LOVED parables -- a little story or question that teaches you a lesson. 

>> JASMINE: Wait a minute, a parable sounds a lot like a folktale!

>> Rachel: Yup, that’s right! A lot of folktales are parables! Annnnnyways, moving on.

The shah loved telling his advisors parables.

>> JASMINE: Wait a minute, what’s an advisor?

>> Rachel: It’s someone who gives advice, and helps people make decisions -- can I keep going now?

>> JASMINE: Yeah yeah yeah, sorry!

>> Rachel: Switch to the bottom of your mouth, and brush the inside, outside and chewing side of each tooth.

So one day the shah had all of his advisors gathered together, and he presented them with a parable.  He said:

“What is the sweetest melody?”

A melody is a song or a sound, so to the shah’s advisors, this sounded like an easy question.

One advisor said, “the melody of the flute is the sweetest!”

SFX FLUTE

>> Rachel: Another advisor said, “No! The melody of the harp is the sweetest!”

SFX HARP

>> Rachel: Switch your brushing to the other side of the bottom of your mouth, and don’t forget the molars in the back 

All of the advisors were starting to take sides in the conversation. Another advisor piped up:

“Oh come on, we all know the violin is the sweetest!”

SFX VIOLIN

>> Rachel: But one advisor was silent. His name was Merza Zaki. He was a was a very good listener, and very clever, so he was very good at coming up with the answer to the shah’s parables.

As all of the advisors argued, Merza Zaki watched quietly.  He was working on a plan.

That’s it for Chompers today, but come back tonight to hear the end of the story! Until then…

>>Kids: 3, 2, 1 spit!